The new Paris Agreement places unprecedented importance on actions needed to help people adapt to a warmer world, and solidifies expectations that all countries will do their part to promote greater climate resilience.

Negotiators made major and encouraging promises when they adopted the new Paris Agreement at COP21 last week. Yet the future success of this Agreement relies on tough questions about accountability, participation, transparency and effectiveness—all of which have governance challenges at their core.

One of the new Agreement's core ingredients is known as the ambition mechanism, or cycles of action. This mechanism lays out a process to continue strengthening countries' climate action every five years, starting before 2020.

Large, private sector energy customers wanting to buy more renewable energy are already driving change in electricity markets by scaling up clean power delivered through the grid. More renewables in countries’ power grids will accelerate progress toward emissions-reduction targets put forth in Paris.

While negotiators huddle at COP21 in Paris, the Global Carbon Project just released its latest assessment of carbon dioxide emissions trends through 2014, showing where emissions are now and where they are headed. Learn about four of the report's key findings.

Countries’ new climate plans should be seen as the floor rather than the ceiling. Low-carbon solutions will become increasingly affordable and accessible over time, allowing nations to gradually ratchet up their ambition.